Mitochondrial Ca2+ signaling is a hallmark of specific adipose tissue-cancer crosstalk

Abstract

Obesity is associated with increased risk and worse prognosis of many tumours including those of the breast and of the esophagus. Adipokines released from the peritumoural adipose tissue promote the metastatic potential of cancer cells, suggesting the existence of a crosstalk between the adipose tissue and the surrounding tumour. Mitochondrial Ca²⁺ signaling contributes to the progression of carcinoma of different origins. However, whether adipocyte-derived factors modulate mitochondrial Ca²⁺ signaling in tumours is unknown. Here, we show that conditioned media derived from adipose tissue cultures (ADCM) enriched in precursor cells impinge on mitochondrial Ca²⁺ homeostasis of target cells. Moreover, in modulating mitochondrial Ca²⁺ responses, a univocal crosstalk exists between visceral adipose tissue-derived preadipocytes and esophageal cancer cells, and between subcutaneous adipose tissue-derived preadipocytes and triple-negative breast cancer cells. An unbiased metabolomic analysis of ADCM identified creatine and creatinine for their ability to modulate mitochondrial Ca²⁺ uptake, migration and proliferation of esophageal and breast tumour cells, respectively.